P420: Critical thinking in the chemistry curriculum

David Gardner (Lander University, USA)

I have the opportunity and privilege to teach both at the introductory chemistry level and at the senior level in physical chemistry. Few of the students I have observed have developed a broad perspective of chemistry as a discipline. Although my seniors have a broader body of knowledge than the beginning students, their knowledge often seems to be isolated and fragmented and not well interconnected. This stands in contrast to needs of the field of chemistry in which we need scientists that are increasingly able to work on projects that are “interdisciplinary”. Traditional chemistry instruction focuses on delivering isolated sets of content knowledge to the students. This presentation will explore the idea what a chemistry curriculum would look like if the focus was to develop chemistry critical thinking skills.